SOUTH Louisiana is pretty well inured to catastrophe. But the still-unfolding disaster that is being dubbed the Great Flood of 2016 came as a particular shock, arriving as it did without a name (unlike a hurricane or a tropical storm) and without the powerful winds that usually herald a dramatic storm.
Forecasters had warned of heavy rains and the possibility of flash floods in and around Baton Rouge, the state capital. But that is routine in August for a place that often gets more rain in a day than many California cities do in a year. The rains that started falling on August 11th, however, dumped a record 15 inches over a wide swath of terrain around the capital city, and more than 25 inches in some places. The rivers, which in the region’s pancake-flat landscape barely slope, couldn’t carry the water away—indeed many began to flow backwards—and the result has been disaster.
The American Red Cross reckons the storms are the worst to have hit the United States since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Officials are still working out the full extent of the damage, but at least 40,000 homes—and possibly as many as...Continue reading
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